Musings

t has been several days since last I updated this blog. I have been super busy and in deeply involved in all kind of fun activities and I have hardly sat down to catch my breath, much less to write. And when I did have a chance to sit down it was generally at a time when there was no internet connection to be had. Anyhoo--

It’s hard to actually go back and get everything up to speed and fill in all the blanks.

I suppose the highlights are that the Teacher Training in Tucson ended on a very strong note. It was a very powerful two weeks and gave me a lot to work with and to think about for myself as a teacher. We had a very strong and mature group of teachers in the training and their capacity for honest self- assessment and reflection was very high. This, like I have mentioned in previous entries made for some deep and revealing discussions that really stayed with me throughout our time together.

As I grow as a teacher it is more and more clear to me what a multi-faceted process of Work on Self that teaching yoga is. On one level, it seems pretty basic- we teach people the yoga postures and some of the philosophy that informs the practice and we cultivate community. How hard could that be? But much more than that definitely seems to be going on in any given class, workshop or training. These innocent-looking poses seem to unlock a lot of passion, feeling, insight and opportunity to grow and change. And the intimacy of all that is going on makes for enlightening and sometimes complex and frustrating interpersonal dynamics. (I actually did not experience any of these frustrating interpersonal dynamics during these weeks of training but the topic came up a fair amount as we traversed the teacher training curriculum and shared about the intricacies of managing the Seat of the Teacher.)

The process of transference in the classroom is a topic that is on my mind a lot these days anyway. In our closing circle one of the trainees told the group that while he is not particularly proud of this part of himself, he is aware that when he meets people, he immediately forms an opinion of them and creates an idea about how people are going to act and then many times spends the training dismantling that impression and getting to know who people really are.

That whole process is called transference and it is happening all time. Like this very honest and insightful person shared, we meet people and form an impression about them. This impression is generally influenced by our patterns and samskaras that go all the way to childhood. Generally, we don’t like people because they remind us in some unconscious way of someone who made us feel bad as a child and we like those people who remind us in some unconscious way of people who made us feel loved and honored as a child. (And while this is not a blame game by any means, generally both of these are- yep, you guessed it-- Mom and Dad! Keep in mind that Mom and Dad may have been holding us in the highest regard a on the day we perceived their look to mean that we were a nuisance and so forth. This is seriously not a blame game because it is about our impressions not about what was actually said or done to or for us.)

So anyway, there we are with all these positive and negative impressions within us and our emotional body and we meet another person. Well, like I said, these historical impressions guide a lot of our current impressions, feelings and decisions and so on. And the dynamic gets further complicated when you add in a teacher-student power differential. A person with historical impressions of not being noticed comes to yoga and a teacher compliments the person on the mat next to them and fails to say something to them and that historical impression gets activated and they feel disregarded by the teacher and feelings of hurt and anger follow. A person has impressions that say “one mistake and you are not loveable” comes to yoga class, gets adjusted in a posture and that impression gets activated and they feel like the teacher is critical, unfair and they themselves feel unworthy. And so on.

And of course, the teacher has all of their patterns also. If a teacher has “Mom and Dad didn’t listen to me” samskaras, for instance, all kinds of things can come up for a teacher when students are not doing what they are asking for in the classroom. If a teacher has a strong internalized message about “don’t make anyone upset” then how happy is a teacher going to feel when a student doesn't like their class or something they shared, etc.? And on it goes.

Most teacher trainings I have been to over the years have focused on making sure that we, as teachers, know how sensitive our students are and how powerful are words and actions can be as teachers and the message has always been about “be careful as a teacher.” I think this is good advice. I really do. Sensitivity and awareness are key tools in our trade. I also think it is only part of the story because as soon as we start getting overly focused on trying to figure out how not to offend anyone in the classroom not only do we get enrolled in a pretty dysfunctional way of life as a teachers but soon we are going to have to see how hopeless that very task is. With 30 people in a classroom, 30 different sets of samskaras at play, one cannot possibly predict the myriad ways that each person in the room might get offended, hurt or upset by something we say, do or don’t say or do. It’s too big.

All we can do as a teacher or a student is to look at our reactions and claim them as our own and step out of the blame game by tracing our reactions back to the source of the original upset to the root cause of the original upset, to the root cause of the pattern. This is the path of the yogi, after all, not the path of the ordinary human. The yogic path is a path of accountability for one's actions and responses with the recognition that life is truly not coming at us from the outside in.

So- more on this another day. After the teacher training, I came home for a day and had a visit to Lululemon for a lovely shopping trip to get an outfit for YOGASM and for my upcoming photo shoot. Kelly and I had lunch with Mom and Dad and then I packed and then we made our way to YOGASM which was a lot of fun. There are so many things to say about the event but I must say that I was thoroughly impressed with MC Yogi and the way he Kelly made a video you can watch.

Click here to watch it.

After YOGASM, Kelly and I came home, went to bed and then got up around 4am the next day to catch a plane to New Jersey. So far we are having a most excellent time here at South Mountain Yoga. More on that to follow. Time to get to some email I have fallen behind on.

Thursday Morning

Well, it's another morning here at the Sell household. I am finishing up my breakfast after my morning practices and thought I would take a few moments to check in.

I had a really great day yesterday. I taught Focus on Form, met Gia for lunch, swung by Lululemon for a visit, came home, did my asana practice and then went back to The Castle to teach the 6pm Level 3/4 class. Both classes yesterday were definitely on the technical side which was kind of fun for me to really dive into the techniques that bring the poses to life.

Again, I do have to say I like it all as far as teaching goes. I like the flow-based, practice-based type of classes that are more theme and breath oriented. I like the alignment, technique-based classes that really feed our knowledge base of the poses, our bodies and the how-to go deeper. I like it when those things join. There is just so much value in each- attitude, alignment and action. Anyway- yesterday was kind of an alignment day.

I was up finishing my packing last night and getting ready for my trip. I head out to Tucson today for the first week of teacher training. 2 years ago, Darren and I taught our first Immersion together and we have taught three full 108-hour cycles since then. Now we are offering a teacher training and so I am anticipating that we will have people from each of those cycles as well as some folks joining us who have done their Immersion studies somewhere else.

It's so interesting to actually look back at the 2 years of these intensives in Tucson. These weeks have been so instrumental in my growth as a person and as a teacher. I really have found them to be so meaningful that its a bit hard to put into words. Two years of growth, change, shifts internally and externally in myself and also in the many students who have participated over the years. It is somewhat stunning to consider, really, what the process of learning and teaching can invoke. Darren and I talk about this a lot, in fact. When we are teaching, it's obvious that the students are going to enter into a kind of chamber for the week. I remember at some point along the way when we realized that we were in that chamber also. that even though we were there "holding the space" for others, the reality is that the process was working on us also. We were in the fire, we were deep in our own contemplation and self-study. I love that about teaching. I really do.

Anyway, I am excited to meet our group and to have 6 days to dive deep into the basics of teaching Anusara Yoga. We will focus a lot on verbal articulation skills, heart-based themes and on sequencing strategies since those things are such the bedrock of good teaching in my opinion.

Plus, I love my Tucson family so I am really looking forward to being there. Darren and Bronwin are some of my best friends, the students at Yoga Oasis are supremely wonderful, open and fun to teach and the students who come from distant lands to these training are typically highly committed, focused and dedicated. I mean, think about it, they get on a plane, take 9 days out of their life to do a training. That is just not casual! So usually in Tucson, I have a great time, supported by folks I love and doing what I love the most. Really, it's a great thing.

Teacher training for me is also a unique kind of conversation. We really get deeper into the method and into a whole new range of considerations as we clarify and practice not just what the method is but how to communicate it effectively to others. It is a very different rasa, a very different flavor than anything else. And every group is different so while similar themes do emerge, it is never boring because every group has a unique story and process.

I will check in about our work throughout the week.

Tuesday Afternoon

So the day is just flying by today.

I was up kind of late last night talking with Amy and Darren about our 2011 programs- (Mark your calendars because we have a few date changes: Amy and I will offer a program together inAustin January 14-16, 2011 not January 28 like I said yesterday. AND in other news-- me, Amy and Darren are gonna team up in Tucson in May 18-22, 2011 for a "Beyond the Part 1 Immersion" for people who have completed the 108 hour program and who want to keep going without listening to another talk on the tattvas! (okay, kidding. sort of. Think more asana, great discussion, a few focused dharma talks, great people, lots of asana, meditation and did I say, a lot of asana? you can sign up for that through yoga oasis.)

Anyway- I got to bed late, slept in and by the time I got done with my morning practices, and went for a walk it was lunch time! I am spending a few hours on the computer today since I didn't have my normal office hours yesterday. I went down to San Marcos instead and met up with some folks for a practice which was super fun. It was great to be back in the old studio and reconnect in a low key way. Don't get me wrong, the asana was far from low key. Just the mood of the practice was kind no frills and back to basics. I really miss practicing down in that space. It reminded me of some very good times.

Here is our sequence, more or less:

vamadevasana prep- one leg in baddha konasana, one leg in wide open virasana- 5 minutes each side

AMS

AMV

uttanasana

dwi pada viparita dandasana over a chair- 5 minutes

surya namaskar A- 5 minutes

surya namaskar B-5 minutes

supta padangusthasana-1,2,3

janu sirsasana with bent leg foot on block

paryankasana over a block

sirsasana

malasana

sirsasana 2-bakasana

vira 1

anjaneyasana

parivritta parsvakonasana

eka pada koundinyasana

pasasana

sirsasana 2-parsva bakasana

padmasana

sirsasana 2- kukkutasana

padmasana with twist

sirsasana 2-parsva kukkutasana

handstand

pinca with backbend- feet at wall

parighasana

parivritta janu sirsasana

danursasana

parsva danurasana

bhekasana

ardha matsyendrasana 2

urdhva danurasana

urdhva danurasana 2

dwi pada viparita dandasana head up

dwi pada viparita dandasana head down

eka pada raja kapotasana

]headstand drop overs

ekapadaviparitadandasana 2

padangustha danurasana

AMS

uttanasana

parsva uttanasana

agnishtambhasana

parsva agnisthambasana

janu sirsasana

pascimottanasana

chair sarvangasana

savasana

Here are a few links from our practice:

sirsasana 2- bakasana-handstand, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_5zdG-K8L8

sirsasana 2-parsva kukkutasana, etc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASi7DSd20ZI&feature=email

Gia- sirsasana to eka pada viparita dandasana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os0jUYoaJ_8&feature=email

me- sirsasana to eka pada virparita dandasana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK3ZYTN-HuI

So I also thought I would share one of my favorite passages from some of Mr. Iyengar's autobiographical writing. I was reading some of this to Darren on the phone last night. He and I share a similar kind of orientation to what we find inspiring. Poetic descriptions of the non-dual state and so on rarely really get us going. Instead we tend to find inspiration in the real life struggles of The Great One's. Mr. Iyengar has one of those stories and his dedication to this art in the face of many obstacles is truly inspiring. Nothing he accomplished came easily and yet he persevered and his legacy is somewhat stunning. I mean even if you don't practice much in that method, most modern schools of yoga are indebted to his work in some way. (Just my opinion-- but it is my blog, after all.) So I am into reading about what it took along the way. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good ecstatic poem and all that. I am just saying, give me a glimpse of the real story-- of the blood sweat and tears involved-- and I am all over that.

So, this is from the Astadala Yogamala, a set of writings by BKS Iyengar. He is telling his life story and the challenges he faced a long the way:

I cannot put into words the suffering I underwent. My hard practice caused agony to my body, to my nerves, to my mind and even to my self. I was tossed from one side to the other; sometimes the body refused to cooperate and at other times the mind would not bear the pain. This way my body and my mind oscillated. My energies were sapped and mental fatigue set in. If I did not try, the self within grew restless:if I tried, failure brought on dejection. Very often exhaustion brought me to the point of collapse. I could neither eat nor drink with comfort. Sleep was almost impossible due to pain and failure causing restlessness in my body and mind. Even easing myself had become a problem. Though I continued practicing yoga for years, defection and doubt tormented me and my mind found no rest except in renewed effort. Each day was an ordeal but God's grace forced me to make one more attempt for every failure. As I had no guide, I made enormous mistakes but I learnt discrimination from observing my own errors. When circumstances forced me to live on my own, I had to go without food for days. Often I lived only on a cup of tea, but the inner flame kept on goading me to do my daily practice with zeal. Slowly I began to feel that my body was growing in strength, my restless, agitated mind was gaining stability. Though I started with the practice of yoga in 1934 it was only in 1946 that an innate interest in yoga rose in me.

That just rocks my world. 12 years of that kind of suffering and he stayed with it. Puts the new-age notion of "being a balanced person" into a new perspective, doesn't it? More on that later.

A few pics from yesterday. More on Facebook.

Wednesday Morning

So this is the last morning of the Immersion and we start a little later today so I am taking the time to write. It has been a really good week all in all. I woke up today feeling energized and rested which is kind of rare at the end of an Immersion. I think perhaps it might be that the antibiotics I am taking have kicked in and the infection I have had this whole time is getting better. I have felt lousy physically this whole trip and in retrospect, it seems clear that I was fighting something and it was sapping my energy. Anyway- due to the wonders of modern medicine, (I am a big believer in antibiotics when they are needed, BTW) I am finishing a week of work feeling much better than when I started.

Also worth noting is that the group is really generating a lot of their own energy this week and requiring a lot less from me and Darren which is fun to watch. These Immersions are really accelerated growth opportunities and it is really inspiring to see what happens for people and their practice in 6 months. There are big internal and external shifts in many domains. It is a great thing to be part of.

I realized this morning that when this Immersion Cycle ends I do not teach another Immersion in the states until January 2011. Its kind of wild to think about, really. I have Part 2 scheduled in Costa Rica in 2010 but other than that, the focus of much of my teaching moves decidedly into Teacher Training for a while. For the most part, I think that is great. Being in the teacher Training zone, while super fun, is also a bit intense because as a teacher who trains teachers, generally, my teaching goes under the microscope during the process. For instance, I may teach a group "the standards for the video" and they will be watching me to see if I am doing what I am asking them to do. (and telling me when I am not!)

I could write about that for a while to be sure, but there will be plenty of time over the next year to be reflecting on that delicious spanda of "video standards" and "real life classroom teaching" and the places where those domains overlap and the places where great teaching may not pass a video and where great video standards fall short in the classroom. So, that is a big topic for another time.

For now, I will savor the last morning with this most wonderful group of people who have assembled for the Immersion. As always, time in Tucson is inspiring and deeply enriching. Darren and the faculty and students of Yoga Oasis have been building a rich and supportive community of practitioners here for over 10 years. The commitment to the vision of kula is in the walls here in such a way that even people from other cities can walk in and feel it almost immediately. I have been teaching here in Tucson since 2003 and I have always felt so at home here and so part of the family and so lined up with my purpose and vision whenever I am here. It is very inspiring to me to be here.

All right, that's about it for now. Someone told me Mercury is out of retrograde, which is wonderful news. I think this cycle was kind of ass kicking around misunderstandings and misinterpretations of intention. More on that later also.

Monday Morning

Okay well, it was a good weekend of Teacher Training. We covered a lot of very basic aspects of teaching Anusara Yoga which will provide us with a foundation on which we can keep building. We have a very high caliber of teacher and student in the group- most of them are experienced and well trained in other traditions so we are not spending a lot of time sorting out basic issues. We covered some basics of anatomy, overview of methodology and central teaching elements, developing heart based themes, basics of sequencing and instructing with the breath.

Several themes kept coming up which are very familiar to me in terms of common questions with teacher trainees. One theme that we addressed is that age-old issue of"keeping the customer happy" and "teaching people in a balanced, holistic and appropriate way." There is always this balancing act when teaching yoga between "What are my students ready for?", "What are my students open to?" "What are my students looking for?" "What are my students expecting when they come to class?" and"What do my students actually need?", "What is it I want to teach?" "What do I think is appropriate, safe, beneficial?" and so on. (For instance a student may like to flow continually through class without stopping to learn appropriate form. But does that mean that is good for them or good for the long term health of their body and practice? Or, a student may hate sweating and may hate flow-based practice and prefer a more start and stop approach or a class that has less hard work. However, that student might need the strength, determination and focus that learning to stay in a flow can yield. And so on.)

A long time ago I was in a workshop with Manouso Manos, a Senior Iyengar teacher and he was conducting a Q&A. Someone asked a question about one of their clients. And he interrupted her and posed a question of his own. "Why is it," he asked, "that you have clients and I only have students?" He went on to talk about what he saw as the distinctions between the two categories. The conversation has stayed with me a long time and I think about it often and the concept always arises in teacher training. In fact, that question in some form, is lurking behind the scenes of many questions that trainees ask--If I ask people to do something they do not want to do, what will happen to my business? It is not a business issue for everyone. For some it is worrying about their students not liking them, or worrying they will make their students feel bad about themselves or something like that.

Of course, its a balancing act. John has always said, we have to give people enough of what they want so that they stick around long enough for us to give them what they need. And I think that's a good perspective to keep in mind. We may "cater to the client" in the name of "waiting for a teachable moment" but that is a different thing than letting the student's preferences and comfort zone dictate the terms of our teaching. Think about it- put 30 people in a room and try to keep them all happy and satisfied and so forth and you will be a crazy person because 30 people have 30 different ideas, quirks, opinions, preferences, likes, dislikes, etc and so forth.

And as always, it depends on circumstance, personality of the teacher and student and it will always be relevant to what it is we are hoping to accomplish or offer as a teacher.

So that is another point of constant inquiry- why teach yoga? It is so important that we as teachers know why we are in front of the room so that we have a sense of our own standard of what we are up to and why. I can teach the Anusara Yoga Standard but how I express that standard is going to be in relationship to my agenda as a teacher. I may be a teacher who wants to provide a nurturing space, I may be a teacher who wants to provide opportunities for challenge as a means of self-empowerment and so on. I actually think there are a lot of great reasons to teach yoga but I think it is good to know what our unique reasons are.

There are some other things that are on my mind from the weekend but thats what I have time to write about today.

On the way home

I am in the Phoenix airport after a lovely sojourn to Prescott. We had a fun time- mostly oriented around a stay at Lee Lozowick's ashram- which also coincided with my friend Aaron Funk's visit to the ashram to do some tattoo work. Aaron is a world class tattoo artist with a shop in Redlands, California. And so Kelly and I are coming home with some new ink which is fun.

Also news is that I met with the team at Hohm Press while I was there. They have accepted my book for publication and it will come out in Spring 2011. So that is a thrill, to say the least. Working title: My Body is a Temple, My Heart is a Shrine: Using Yogic Principles to Build a Life of Practice and Personal Connection with the Divine. So I am really pleased about that. We have some small things to work out and to correct but it is a go and it is a huge relief to have that in motion finally.

Let's see- I had one of those amazing- synchronisitc- universe- teaching -me -moments on the way to the airport today. I am not sure I can capture the profundity of it quickly but I can perhaps outline the gist of it.

Threads of the back story:

• I have been in a deep consideration this year about dharma- about my purpose and mission and my heart's intention.

• I have spent three lovely, deep, rewarding and intense weeks teaching with a lot of focus and delight with so much insight and inspiration to process that I am full to the brim, completely tired and totally on fire.

• I ended the three week stint with a visit to the ashram which was in high gear while I was there with a celebration, with people getting tattoos, with my teacher's current health challeneges and an impending move to a new property and so on. Plus, it is just a heightened energetic field in general and it always stirs things up in wonderful and sometime challenging ways.

• in the midst of all of this I have also been pondering and reflecting on how nothing can really change in the inner life without love. without radical acceptance, forgiveness, and compassion because our worst behavior is almost always coming from some abandoned aspect of self, just clamoring for love, attention and recognition. To manhandle ourselves into being better, to turn yoga into yet another lifetime self-improvement project based on the assumption we are flawed is just not going to shift us in the deepest way. To me, the thing is love. we seriously need our own understanding. We may have great flashes of warrior-like clarity where we think we can really "do it" this time but if that recognition is coming out of self-hatred or condemnation, be sure it won't last. (My opinion. Lasting change comes from love.)

• I had just finished reading a great quote from The Daily D which really summed up a lot of what I had been thinking about.-In a paradox, opposites do not negate each--they cohere in mysterious unity at the heart of reality. Deeper still, they need each other for health, as my body needs to breath in as well as breath out. But in a culture that prefers the ease of either-or thinking to the complexities of paradox, we have a hard time holding opposites together...when I yield to the endless interplay of living and dying, dying and living, the life I am given will be real and colorful, fruitful and whole." Parker J Palmer - Let Your Life Speak

• Meanwhile, Gia and I were in a text discussion about creating sacred space as yoga teachers and taking a stand for yoga being a refuge in the madness of modern culture and how important it is that the sanctity of studios, practice halls and community be created, tended, nurtured and how there seems to be a trend in the popular yoga world to bring elements of the sleeping world into these sacred gatherings. Now this is not wrong in and of itself and I am not some kind of yogic purist nor do I want to be a yoga police but I wonder sometimes if we are running the risk of becoming too casual in a way. And I worry about the cost for some of those choices. For instance, how many people came to yoga as an alternative to drugs and alcohol and what I often refer to as The Sleeping World and now find it as part of the "after party?

• And then I get this letter form a student in the Immersion and the deep opening she experienced as a result of the training. It cracked me wide open and as I read her email in the car rental return parking lot I began to weep. She shared some of her story with me in the most moving way and I realized the depth of my gratitude for this work and this path. And how necessary it is that we provide places of sanctity and safety for each other to look at ourselves, to face what we have ignored, to cultivate love for ourselves and one another.
• It is a bit hard to capture the immensity of what I am feeling with this but it just tied all the pieces of a conversation up in a lovely way. So anyway, I could write for an hour on any one of these bullet points and now the plane is about to board. I guess the whole thing is just that the way we serve best is often just in being who we are. And when I get a hit of that it is the most satisfying, enlightening and humbling experience I know.

And so more on that tomorrow. Time to get on the plane.

as always, more later.

So, I had a great time in Kentucky, I really did. I just loved my host and all the students who were so dedicated and focused all weekend. Yoga East is comprised of 3 yoga studios- one of which is Iyengar-y hatha, one of which is Mysore-style Ashtanga Vinyasa and one of which has a vinyasa emphasis with lots of folks trained by Cyndi Lee at Om Yoga. (This may not be exactly accurate but it is the general picture that Laura explained to me or more clearly "My understanding of the general picture...") Anyway, Laura Spaulding, the director, has been practicing and teaching for a long and her community is full of mature, dedicated and sincere students of all ages with great respect for different traditions. We had a great time exploring our similarities and differences and doing lots of yoga. It was really inspiring to me.

Anyway, I encountered a fair amount of "travel hell" on the way home from Louisville. The plane out of Kentucky was delayed by 5 hours which got us to Dallas late and meant the connecting flight to Austin would not go out until the morning. So I got into a hotel in Dallas around 1:30 am and got up at 4:45am to get back on a plane. I finally got home around 8:30am yesterday morning. It was a long journey home.

I decided to go the health club to soak in the hot tub once I returned and once there, I decided to swim which really helped move some of the stagnant energy I felt in my body from sitting and standing and waiting all those hours. I came home, made a great Ayurveda lunch for me (Spiced rice and daal) and Kelly and then did some errands and met Anne for Peggy's class, which was fantastic. Here is her sequence as I remember it.

• paryankasana with block and arms belted- 5 minutes or more
• adho mukha svanasana
• surya namaskar variation with nakrasana thrown in several times
• supta padangusthasana variations
• eka pada supta badha konasana variations
• uttana padasana
• ustrasana
• pigeon droppings to chair, to block- lots
• ustrasana to kapotasana at wall- several
• kapotasana- several
• sirsasana drop overs to chair and back up from chair- lots
• sirsasana drop overs to floor and back up- 6X
• urdhva danurasana to dwi pada viparita dandasana with ankles belted and head down to urdhva danurasana- 3X
• ardha matsyendrasana at wall- 2 variations
• ardha halasana legs supported on a chair
• savasana

I came home, made dinner and went to bed early, which I needed since I had maybe 4 hours the previous night. Today I am going to catch up on some business, start packing because I go to Corpus Christi, TX this weekend and head out to Arizona for 10 days first thing on Monday morning. So I need to be ready for Arizona when I head out to Corpus Christi.

I am teaching at Castle Hill at 4:30 so please come to class if you can.

Okay, more later!

Me and Kelly in Oregeon

SO we travelled yesterday and got into Oregon. had time for a great lunch and afternoon walk and made our way to Shawn and Dianna's (Kelly's brother and his wife) for dinner and a visit with them and their 3 kids. Seth, my other nephew was out of town on a camping trip. Anyway, we had a great visit, good food and fantastic conversation.
.

Kelly and I woke up this morning, had breakfast in bed and then went to Multnomah Falls for a hike. It is a fantastic hike of about 5 miles and lots of up and down hill with one incredible waterfall after another. After that we went to lunch and we are now waiting to meet up with my friend from college, Stephanie, for a visit and perhaps another walk.
.

It is really great to have some time in nature, some time with Kelly and some time for some R&R. Tomorrow I am leading a practice at Allison Altsrom's place and I realize now that I said the wrong time. It is 10-1, not 10-3. So, anyone in Portland who wants to come practice, come and join us. The link is a few posts back or send me a quick email and I can give you the details.

All right- in other exciting news, I just borrowed a pair of scissors from the hotel desk and cut my bangs. My hair dresser will probably yell at me but when I saw all these pictures all I could think was, "Wow, my bangs are in my face. How annoying." (Okay, I also noticed the scenery and how my shirt matches the trees almost exactly.)

More later.

In Vail

Well, I am sitting in a very nice hotel in Vail Colorado, sipping an excellent cup of coffee and looking out the window as the snow falls at a gorgeous mountain view!

Kelly and I travelled most of the day yesterday and got into Vail in the middle afternnon, soaked in the outdoor hot tub while the snow was falling and then cleaned up and got ready to go to Dogma Athletica for the class I was teaching there. Amy is the yoga director there and she came to the Immersion with me and Darren in Tucson and when she realized I was going to be in town for the Rocky Mountain Yoga Conference she invieted me to come a day early and teach a class at the club where she works. We had a great group of really inspiring practioners. I was able to teach a very strong class with lots of refinements in motion. We worked on arm balances and backbends and we had a really fun time together.

Today is a day to catch up on the computer, take some personal time and then met up for the conference later in the day. More later.

Back from Corpus

I had hoped to post a longer entry but by the time I caught up on some email, updated my workshop schedule and the blog link list, I am out of time! I am meeting Genevieve in Austin this morning to go over some details for our India trip and then I am going to take Matt's Ashtanga class and then go for a swim. I am pretty excited for some strong movement as the weekend of teaching was quite full and snagging an hour of practice each day as about all I could manage.

But what a weekend it was. We had the first weekend of our Corpus Christi training this weekend. We will be together for a whole year doing an Immerison and Teacher Training program. The group was so great to work with. We had 19 folks sign up for the training and they are all so open, strong, sincere and motivated to learn. We spent the weekend on covering the 5 UPA's and it was an immense download of information and sharing of insight that was really pretty inspiring.

I have a lot I could say but the highlight for me of the weekend was the introductions circle because the level of honesty and vulnerability that people brought to it was so real that it really blew me away. One of my favorite things to do is to hear from people what it is that they love about yoga and how it has changed their lives. People shares some of the most incredible stories about the difference their practice has made in their lives and in the perceptions about themselves and their world. I kept thinking- yes, that is what we get to do as yoga teachers. We get to be part of that process of change and discovery and really, is there anything better?

The other cool thing is that people found life-changing yoga everywhere- in gyms, YMCA's , videos, yoga studios and so forth. I was so inspired by this as well. The power of this practice transcends location, means of delivery and even our own beliefs about whether or not yoga is "for real." That is what is so cool I mean really, we just never know who is coming into our class and what is happening in their inner life when they are doing surya namaskar. We just don't. We may think we do, but we don't know for sure. And I found this idea so humbling and so inspiring.

So it was a great weekend- Michelle assembled a great group for me to work with and it was cool to see the fabulous work she has been doing in Corpus Christi. And Beth, one of the students in the program, let me stay in her guest house/apartment which was like a 5-star hotel! I felt so totally spoiled. I really did.

All right, off to the races. More later.

Christmas Eve Eve

So, I have many childhood memories of this day. What day is this you ask? Well, it is Christmas Eve Eve and really, as a child, it was like the longest day of the year for me. Christmas and all the presents were not the next day. There was the whole day of today, then the whole day of Christmas Eve and then it was Christmas. At some point in the whole affair of growing up together, Anne and I discussed our feelings about Christmas Eve Eve and we discovered we each felt the same way about it. So over the years we have taken to commemorating the day every year with at least a phone call, if not a fun activity.

Anne is a bit under the weather so I am not sure what her plans are for today but I will be teaching my yoga classes this evening and then hopefully scooting over to the Alamo for Slumdog Millionaire. That is, if I can actually end my class on time, which as we all know, is not one of my strong suits. Last night Kelly and I went to see Yes Man, which I thought was funny. I was definitely in the mood for funny and I love Jim Carrey movies. Well, most of them anyway. I like them best when he doesn't really try to act. But that is another story. And yes, movies are part of my personal Christmas time traditions that go way back.

All right then, more later.

Home Again

Well, I am home from Estes Park and back in Blog Land. I was staying in a cabin away from Internet access and whenever I was away from the cabin I was so busy that I just could not manage to keep up the blog from Estes Park.

The Grand Gathering was, well, Grand. Just so fantastic in so many ways. The scope of the event was staggering and the ease with which all the logistics were managed were certainly impressive. I spent every morning assisting John on the floor in his Master Classes, all of which were fantastic. Occasionally I would look up at the sea of 800 people all practicing beautiful Anusara Yoga and it was just staggering and almost dizzying.

Interestingly enough, the highlights of the week for me were really not connected so much to the asana classes or workshops but were oriented more around the personal time I got to spend with my friends and fellow presenters. I am just continually amazed at this community. You cannot find a group of people more fun-loving and more ready to party at a drop of a hat who also can instantly give you personal advice that is solid, grounded, compassionate and that challenges you to really step into your truth at new levels. It is a stunning configuration of people. It really is.

Please check out Pamela's Blog for the scoop and the play-by-play of Estes. She is now our famous Blogger and she deserves it given her zeal for communication and the written word.

I am off to go practice before my Immersion meets today. I anticipate traffic being somewhat hellish given ACL festival and the football game so I will need to leave early.

All right then. More later.

A few pics-

Me and Naime on the limo up to Estes PArk, which is a story all in itself.

Brent and Shelley.
Me and Noah and Naime on our drive to the mountains.

The Goddesses go hiking...Me, Sarah, Rachel, Kelly and Christy on a hike. Me at Dream Lake. WOW.

Missed the Blog Window

Yesterday I got earlier than usual to meditate and do my pranayama and japa practices before our 7am meeting with Carlos Pomeda.

After the meeting (which due to Skype complications never really got off the ground) I practiced asana before showering and heading up to Austin for a session with Craig. Then Kelly, Anne and I went to lunch at Central Market- home of a fantastic veggie burger. I dropped Kelly off to school, Anne and I went to Costco and stocked up on some essentials (as well as some non-essentials like Kettle Chips, proof yet again of the benevolence of the Divine. I mean how Good are those chips?!) I picked Kelly up from school and we came home for a mellow evening at home. (We watched a little of Le Tour and a few episodes of King of the Hill which is one of TV shows of all time.)

Anyway in all of that yesterday, I missed a good window for writing on my blog. Anyway, here I am this morning answering a stack of emails that came in yesterday. My plan after walking the dogs in a little while is to do a restorative practice, and then to finalize my class plans for the weekend before I go up to Austin to teach and for Craig's class tonight. Not too much exciting to report about today.

I am really looking forward to seeing everyone in class tonight. I have not been there for three weeks so I hope there is actually still a class! I will be there next week (July 24) also but the following week (July 31) I am going to be at Feathered Pipe in Iyengar Yoga Land with Anne for a retreat with Patricia Walden and John Schumaker. (Then I am home for two weeks and then gone for a week. blah blah blah.)

All right then- more later.

Namaste Ya'll

So I had the yoga marathon last night which was fun. In fact, I used "fun and enjoyment" as my theme for the evening. Isn't it cool to think that our enjoyment is simply a microcosmic reflection of the Divine's enjoyment? Love that. Sometimes hard to remember in the thick of things, like last night's hip openers at 6:00, but, well, no one said it was going to be easy to be microcosmic deities!

Thanks to everyone who came to practice in the midst of the holiday madness. Classes were a bit smaller than usual but so well attended by so many familiar, fun-loving practitioners that it really made my day. Plus I got flowers, a gift ceritifcate, beautiful cards, smiles and hugs, and well-wishes galore. (Pam- I even wore the necklace you gave me for Christmas but you were not in class!!! See what it has come to? I used to thank the double-dippers by name and now I am naming names on those who are MIA. Kidding. I know you are slammed right now.)

So then Anne and I went to grab a bite to eat at Whole Foods where I ran into my friend Joe Malina. Joe lives in Austin but he and I met in Arizona years ago and were even engaged to be married for a period of time. (That is another story, however.) He and his wife just had a baby and so we got to catch up on fun things like that. Plus he is one of the funniest people I know so the three of laughed hysterically for a good 20 minutes while we ate.

Anne and I got up this morning at 5:30 to set out for Georgia. As far as holiday travel, it was pretty uneventful although the traffic on the road outside of Atlanta was downright epic. We got here around 6:30 EST and sat down to a great bowl of Balck bean soup that Mom had made. After dinner Annd and I came down to the guest house (My parents have two houses. The guest house is a 900 square foot house a few doors down from them where we stay when we come. It is very cute.) to get settled in. I unpacked, happily discovered that I can grab a wireless connection from the neighbor next door, and I am having some tea, deciding whether I am going to take a bath and go to bed or if I am going to go back up and hang out with Mom and Dad. Bed is looking likely- I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Well, I managed to write a bit on the plane today and I am reading a great book about Cleopatra. (I love good historical fiction.) So- that's the very mundane update for today. More as the week goes on.

Big Week

Somehow the week got away from me without writing again and here it is Thursday night, home from the yoga marathon and checking in with my emails and business and winding down. I had a great week of teaching. It was nice to have had a break and it was nice to return to my various classes to connect with everyone again.

Tuesday's flow class was really a blast this week. We actually worked on visvamitrasana, and arm balance in the class which is a bit beyond the range of poses that I usually include in that class but the group was so strong, attentive and ready that I went for it and so many people managed to make progress in the pose, so that was fun.

The Tuesday advanced class worked on twists, forward bending standing poses and arm balances. It was a good strong and fun practice. (And thank God for Alice in the front row with her ever-present enthusiasm. I agree with Jeremiah, we are all in trouble if we lose Alice!)

Wednesday classes in San Marcos were delightful as always. We had several people MIA which I can only assume is due to holidays and the cold/flu thing that seems to be hitting people strongly. One thing I love about The San Marcos School of Yoga is that the room is small and the students are very interested in learning. So I find my demos very effective in this setting and the teaching fun and challenging in a way that is different from what I love about teaching in Austin. Really teaching here and there is the best of both worlds.

The 5:30 class worked on forward bends and had a huge breakthrough in janu sirsasana which was really exciting and the 7:00 class is progressing quite nicely through the beginning syllabus.

I am going to re-work the class syllabi slightly before the next session so that each level is more varied with a few standing poses, a few back bending postures, a few forward bends and so on. It will be minor changes just responding to what I have found in teaching from my original plans now for almost a year.

Tonight's classes were fun also. The 4:30 class was a highlight as it usually is. Lisa came up to me after class and thanked me for picking Austin as a place to move to and teach. It was so sweet the way she said it and I am not sure if I responded in the "right" way (by right meaning the way that best expressed what I felt) but what I felt was a lot of gratitude for the warm welcome I have received here. Really the community that I have joined and that we are all creating together is a pretty exciting thing for me. And now Jesse has rearranged his work schedule to be there at 4:30 so the fun keeps building!

I had a lot of new people at 6:00 and we worked on twists. And at 7:00 we practiced a potpourri of hip openers and standing poses. And the 7:00 class gave me a elcture on football. Evidently there is som big game tonight- Packers and Cowboys. Sounds like it could be a strange kind of reality TV show set in a western town's grocery store. Anwyay... more later.